Nixon, Joan Lowery Books

If You Were a Writer

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

If I Were A Writer 5 out of 5 stars.
34 of 35 people found this review helpful.

This story is about a young girl who's mother is a writer. The girl watches her mother work and picks up pointers on things that writers do. The girl then starts some writing of her own. As a teacher, I have found that, this book inspires my students to become writers and it is wonderful to use with "writer's workshop."

If you were a writer, this is what you'd do 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

This book begins with the statement that "Melia's mother was a writer,' and Melia wants to be one, too. Her mother explains to her the kind of things she would do if she were a writer. She would work with words and think of the right ones to use. She would *show* a story, not tell about it. She would let the storyline gell in her mind before writing it down. Melia's mother also gives her some tips on how to get started and how to get ideas from the world around her. By the end of the book, Melia practices doing each task and is on her way to becoming a writer.

"If You Were a Writer" could be put into the hands of grade-schoolers who show affinity for writing or who need some guidance in beginning to write on their own. Older students may feel as though the author has oversimplified the writing process and that there's much more to it than is expressed here. This offering is just a beginning.

Editorial Review:

Melia wants to be a writer just like her mom. She's not exactly sure what a writer does, though. She sees her mom staring at the typewriter and then she sees her opening up boxes of books. But what comes in between?

With some help from her mom, Melia begins to learn the tools of the trade. She learns how to make pictures with words, how to search for ideas, and, of course, how to start a story. Before she knows it, Melia's creating her own spellbinding tales. Maybe she is a writer after all!

Caught in the Act (Orphan Train Adventures)

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

CAUGHT IN THE ACT 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

A twelve year old boy named Mike kelly is sent west on the orphan train because he was a theif.He was adopted by the Friedrichs.Gunter a thirteen year old boy who hates Mike and lies to get him beaten and send back to New York.Will he succeed? Read this book to find out.

The adventure continues! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

"Caught In The Act" continues the story of the six Kelly children that were were sent away to get adopted by new families because their mother feels that she cannot afford to keep them. I read the first book in the series called "A Family Apart" and it was about the children getting adopted by new families and the second part was about Frances Kelly's adventures with her family. This book talks about how Michael Kelly is doing with the Friedrichs. Mike's main concern is that he believes that the Friedrichs are hiding something from him. He thinks this because he overheard a conversation about somebody named Ulrich. Mike's opinion is that Mr. Friedrich killed him. The story is all about Mike's adventure.

I really enjoyed the novel because it's interesting to see what life was like back in that time. So far I have read the books: A Family Apart, Caught In The Act and In The Face Of Danger. I'm going to read the whole series! If you are thinking of buying this book buy A Family Apart first.

Editorial Review:

Eleven-year-old Michael Patrick Kelly from New York City is sent to a foster home, a Missouri farm with a sadistic owner, a bullying son, and a number of secrets, one of which may be murder.

The House On Hackman's Hill

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 116 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Scary house 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book is about when two cousins, Debbie and Jeff, find out about a old house that their grandparents house live next to. They go to the old house to ask the old owner some questions about the house. Mr.Karsten (the owner) tells them that the mummy is in the basement of the house. The mummy is worth $10,000 dollars. They pack their stuff and set out to the house. When they get inside they are trapped from a blizzard, but they are not the only ones in the house. First, they enter his library and find secret passage way. After they hear a howl of a Jackal, they find a statue of a Jackal head and a man's body. At the bottom is the word Anubis. They find the mummy and a man's body, but then a live size statue comes to life. They dodge him and run out of the house, leaving the mummy behind. The house catches on fire, but they find two Egyptian jewels and return home safely.

Editorial Review:

A $10,000 reward for a missing mummy lures cousins Jeff and Debbie into an old mansion. But a raging snow storm forces them to spend the night ­ and an evil ancient spirit might not let them see the dawn.

A Dangerous Promise (Orphan Train Adventures)

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great resource! 4 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

As an educator of upper elementary students, I think the whole Orphan Train Adventures series is outstanding! It tells a tale while weaving in historical events. It makes learning history more interesting because the stories are told from a young person's point of view!

Want to go back and time and experience a bullet in the leg? 4 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

The guns swirling around you make you want to turn and run, but you wont.....at least Mike wont. Want to read a wonderful story of the Civil War and the urge that gripped the teens in America during that great war and made them run and join the army? Want to know why the nickname for the Civil War is "The Boys' War"? Well, you'll find out in this wonderful book about the war that claimed the lives of so many and destroyed and brought families together. A wonderful book, that can be a curse because you wont let it down. Enjoy this wonderful tail of the bullets flying and the men dying at your side...........

Editorial Review:

In 1861, sixteen-year-old Mike Kelly and his friend Todd become Union Army drummer boys, leading to a desperate adventure for Mike, who is wounded and trapped behind enemy lines. Reprint. SLJ.

Search for the Shadowman (Joan Lowery Nixon)

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

This Book Is Mysterious, Scary, And Great 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

In this book Shadow Man you will experience some sad, mysterious, and shocking things. Initially, the main character in the story, twelve-year-old Andy Thomas isn't thrilled with his teacher's assignment to explore family history. But when asking questions about his ancestors, he is surprised to discover a relative named Coley Joe Bonner. No one wants to discuss what went on in the family's past. Andy searches everywhere to gather information about his family's past, from the Internet to the local cemetery. The family is telling Andy to stop his investigation. "Will Andy's search hurt those he love or make them realize that it's never too late to seek justice?" Twelve-year-old Andy Thomas, who was assigned to a project where he had to find out a lot of things about his family history. He goes through old boxes, family trees, and old photo albums to find out everything he can. Andy looks through all of these old boxes and finds that there is a guy on a photo that's not shown. When Andy asks around about who he is they say his name is Coley Joe, but refuses to tell anything else about him. He goes to J.J.'s house (his best friend) to go see Miz Minna, for some information. When he asks her what he does, she says that he stole the family money and was taken out of the family bible. Knowing Andy he goes to the Internet, then the library, then to the cemetery. Doing all of that research, it gets him on to a investigation. He uses his dad's screen name, Hunter, to ask people in the chat rooms about Coley Joe. He finds out some things about Coley Joe, but that doesn't help his search. Someone in the chat room sends Andy some letters that Coley Joe sent to his girlfriend Felicity. He printed them out, set them down, and headed toward the cemetery. When he got there, a man named Elton was there and he was kind of scary. He knew some things about Coley Joe, but he mostly kept telling Andy to find out what the Bonners want to tell him. Andy is really confused about what is going on. But to find out what the family's secret is you'll have to read the book! But as a hint, the mystery to be solved is that the main character, Andy Thomas, believes that his relative Cole Joseph Bonner did not steal his family's money. The problem is that he is the only one in his family that believes this. His best friend J.J. Gasper the 7th (J.J. is James Jonathan Gasper) is trying to prove that Andy is right but the problem is J.J.'s great grandmother, Miz Minna, doesn't like the fact that Andy is digging up old family secrets that may change their town's history. So while he's digging up things, Miz Minna is giving Andy warning signs to stop researching about Coley Joe or something bad was going to happen to him. Imagine that you were Andy and your family thinks a relative in your family stole family money, what would you do? I know, you would try to figure out the real story just as Andy did. This book is filled with suspense. Andy's search filled me with many questions. The author of this book wrote this book very well and she has been called "the grande dame of young adult mysteries". She has served as vice president of the Southwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and is the only four-time winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Best Juvenile Mystery Award. Joan, the author, has won awards for many of her books. So if she has won many awards and was vice president of the Southwest Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America then there is no wonder why the book is so good. In reading this book I thought that it would be excellent for kids' ages 8-15 years of age. After you read this review/article, I recommend you go and get this book.

Editorial Review:

Twelve-year-old Andy Bonner isn't thrilled with his teacher's assignment to explore family history. When he starts asking questions about his ancestors, he is startled to discover a black sheep in the family tree. No one wants to reveal what happened in his family's past. But Andy is determined to break the silence. Casting his net widely, from the Internet to the local cemetery, Andy's search helps everyone realize it's never too late to seek justice. An IRA Teacher's Choice.

The Haunting

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 43 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Petrified Plantation 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Joan Lowery Nixon is a striking writer. I would read this book over and over again. She shows an evil mood, when she describes the mysterious evil that haunts the old plantation house. Nixon's style is mysterious murders, ghosts, and other things that go bump in the night.

I would recommend this book to people who love a good spine-chilling, horrifying, spooky tale. The exposition could use a little work but otherwise the book is breath-taking.This book gave me the jitters, but a chill that fills my mind with questions. What if ghost do exist? What if they're watching you right now? What if they're standing right behind you?

The main character in the story is Lia Langley who looks back on her families' past and feels she doesn't fit in. All the women in her family have been exceptionally brave except for her. Lia loves to read and doesn't solcialize well with others. Lia is shy and very unsure of herself. After the death of Lia's great-grandmother, Sarah, an old plantation house named Graymoss is left in Lia's mother's hands. Lia's parents plan to move there and raise unadoptable children.

According to a mysterious lady that lives in the wood behind Graymoss, Lia will have to set free the evil that haunts Graymoss after dusk for the house to be "liveable." Will Lia save Graymoss? Will the evil be vanquished? Who is the inscrutable evil that haunts Graymoss?

The plot is very easy to follow. It's clear that Lia's goal us to get rid of the the ghost that haunt Graymoss. The plot revolves around the stories of Graymoss and the mystifying things that happen after dark.

In summary, Joan Lowery Nixon knows how to write a good book from expostion to the closing sentence. If I had to rate this book from 1 to 10, without a doubt I would this book a 10.

Editorial Review:

Fifteen-year-old Lia comes from a long line of courageous women, dating back to a Civil War survivor who single-handedly saved her Louisiana plantation house, Graymoss, from destruction. But Graymoss is haunted by a terrible evil.

With clues from a diary and Favorite Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Lia, who doesn't feel as if she's inherited any family genes of courage, must figure out what--or who--the evil wants. When Lia's parents decide to move into Graymoss, Lia isn't sure how to convince them to change their minds. But it's up to her to chase away the horror lurking inside the old house. Can she find the courage to deal with a noisy ghost who wants vengeance?


From the Hardcover edition.

Nightmare

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Nixon fan, but . . . . 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I used to read every Nixon book I could get my hands on at the library a long time ago. I still read YA books from time to time (esp as I'd like to write them), and was pleased to see there were some newer ones than those I remembered. I picked this up to give it a shot. The writing is fine, as I did want to keep reading it. But it started better than it ended. There were moments in the beginning that I laughed out loud at. I would have liked her to explore Emily's relationship with her friends more though and I felt the climax was seriously rushed. I also would have liked to see Emily's family's reactions to everything that happened. It was enjoyable, but the realtionships could have been worked through better. I'm a hopeless romantic, so I wish they'd done a bit more with Maxwell, but the promising start kind of tapered off by the end. Maybe it could have just used an extra chapter. I'd recommend some of Nixon's older mysteries before this one. But this wasn't bad.

Editorial Review:

Emily has never fit in her overachieving family. Instead of getting straight As, she sits in the back row and hides behind her hair. As a result, her parents have enrolled her at Camp Excel—an academic camp for underachievers—for the summer. Emily doesn’t want to go, and not just because she feels it isn’t necessary. She’s been plagued by a recurring nightmare since she was a child. And there’s something about this camp that feels familiar—has she been there before? Why can’t she remember?

With the help of two new friends, Emily discovers that her nightmare is not just in her head. Someone at Camp Excel has a secret—and will do anything, even murder, to keep Emily from uncovering the truth.


From the Hardcover edition.

Caesar's Story, 1759

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Slavery's scars, without sentimentality. 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

This, the second in the Colonial Williamsburg Young Americans series, is the story of a slave boy who moves from Carter's Grove Plantation to Williamsburg when his young master attends the grammar school at the College of William and Mary. This brief tale of mid-seventeenth life is fast-paced and full of action, while yet vibrantly aware of the emotional turmoil suffered by all parties to the blight that was slavery. Nixon, a prolific and talented children's novelist, never allows her writing to dwindle into maudlin political correctness or weep sentimentality. This is a highly recommended book not just for the young readers for which it is intended, but anyone who appreciates a good historical read. Reading this just prior to a visit to Colonial Williamsburg would be a treat indeed.

Editorial Review:

Caesar's life as a slave consists of long, hard hours of backbreaking work in the fields. Having his family around him makes everything bearable. Then the new master, Caesar's childhood playmate, chooses Caesar to be his personal servant and live in the big house, away from his family. Why do things have to change?

Circle of Love (Orphan Train Adventures)

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Circle of Love by Sahil Rajvanshi 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

This story is about a 19 year old girl name Frances Mary Kelly. She lives in Kansas. She is a school teacher. She knows a man name Johnny. They go to the church together. One day she met up her friend, Andrew. He wanted her to take a boy name Stefan to New York. So she went to the store to buy things for her trip. She surprised Johnny because he didn't know about her trip to New York. She boarded the train with Stefan to New York. When they got there, Stefan was very happy to see his aunt and uncle.

Then Frances met a woman name Mrs. Hunter in New York. Frances told Mrs. Hunter that she wanted to visit her old neighborhood. When she got there, she was surprised and upset to see that everything had changed. It was looking like a junk yard now. When she got back from her sad trip, Mrs. Hunter wanted her to take many orphan children to different train stops, to find parents who would adopt them. She took all the children to the train station. They all got in the train. She met a man name Seth in the train and he helped her by getting food and milk for everyone. During the night time, when all the kids were sleeping, Frances and Seth got to know each other. In the morning, Seth's brother came next to the train on a horse. Seth took one of the children as hostage. Then Frances ran towards the child and tried to pull him inside the train. Seth let go of the child and jumped off the train, onto his brothers horse and rode away. Frances sent a telegram message to the sheriff, notifying him that seth and his gang are on the way to rob a bank. When Frances reached the train station, sheriff told her that he chaught the gang except Seth.

Frances and the children went with sheriff to the church for the adoption meeting. Frances described to all the people in the church about the Children Aid Society. Also told them about the children she had with her. After that, each parent came and adopted a child they liked. Most of the children were adopted by someone. Frances took the remaining children to the train station for the next place for adoption.

After all the children were adopted, Frances still had one child left name Eddie. Frances took Eddie to her mom's place and her mom liked him a lot. She took Eddie to her home in Kansas and met up with Johnny. They both got married and adopted Eddie for their son.

Editorial Review:

The Civil War has officially ended, and Frances Mary Kelly's true love, Johnny, is back from the war. But to Frances's dismay, Johnny is hesitant to marry her. Attempting to ease her aching heart, Frances accepts an offer to go to New York City and escort a group of orphans out West to new homes. Along the way she must deal with a flood of painful memories and a threatening stranger. Will Frances be able to complete her mission...and return home to find out what her future will be?

Ann's Story, 1747 (Nixon, Joan Lowery. Young Americans.) (Nixon, Joan Lowery. Young Americans.)

Joan Lowery Nixon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Book About Colonial Life: 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

This is a great book, and I'd reccommend it to anyone who loves reading about history and learning more about Colonial Williamsburg. I think it's a great book about a girl named Ann who's living in Colonial Williamsburg, and dreams of helping her father in the apothacary instead of becoming a gentlewomen. Read this book now! You'll enjoy it! I did!

Ann's Adventures 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a book about a girl whose name is Ann and she's 9 years old. She lives in Colonial Williamsburg and she wishes she could be a doctor but she can't because she's a girl. Matthew Davenport is Ann's best friend's brother. He likes to tease the younger children about anything that would scare them. When the Capital burns, Matthew frightens Ann by telling her she will have to move to a swamp to a house with a dirt floor and poisonous snakes. Soon people start coming down with smallpox, so Ann can't go to crowded places anymore.

One time, after church, Matthew tells her there's going to be a really crowded festival where Native Americans are dancing to drums, which is illegal. Matthew thinks it would be so cool to see it because he wants some adventure. He says she'll be too scared to go. Ann decides she'll prove him wrong.

I really like this book because it has a lot of adventure and Ann is always getting into mischief. If you read this book I think you'll really like it.

Sarah Tiedemann

Editorial Review:

Nine-year-old Ann McKenzie is learning how to knit, cook, manage a household, and behave like a proper young woman. She would rather assist her father, Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, with his patients and work in his apothecary. Ann knows it's unheard of for a woman to be a doctor. But there must be some way for her to care for people as her father does